The Timelessness of Superhero Costumes: Marvel Edition

By Shrey Sankalp

It's probably redundant to tell you how popular superhero costumes are these days - the barrage of children dressed up in their favorite Marvel costumes and DC costumes would have done that already, for sure.

We have reached a point where the glut of superhero costumes has all but made horror costumes a minority (not that we haven't been tracking their resurgence). So why is it that today's costumers, when asking for a green monster costume have the Hulk costume in mind, and not the Frankenstein costume?
It's a fair question, that, and one we are all too happy to deliberate upon.

If you were an avid comic reader (who was also an X-Men fan) in the '90s and someone told you back then they were getting themselves a Deadpool costume for Halloween, you'd be surprised.
Today, you'd say, "You too?".
How did we get here, anyway?
Two words: superhero boom.
It's not that superhero costumes were uncommon before 2010 (or even 2000, for that matter) - you could still find people in a Spider-Man costume or a DC costume (that's another conversation that we need to be having very soon!), but they just weren't as many in number as today.
This number only rose after 2000 and 2002, when Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi took the costumed adventures of X-Men and Spider-Man from the pages of comic books and brought them on a screen. The mainstream exposure received by the characters really drove their popularity up, and as a result there were more little Wolverine and Spider-Man(s) running around than ever, but believe me, the door was only ajar yet.
The door was kicked open with the arrival of Iron Man on the scene back in 2008 and we haven't looked back since.

With Iron Man came the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and what Marvel Studios essentially did was take all their secondary characters (with the exception of Spider-Man, who was at Sony and the X-Men who were at Fox - it's complicated!), and build an interconnected franchise around them.
Heroes like Thor, Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye may not have been the first characters to come to one's mind when they heard superhero, but in the 9 years and countless Marvel costumes and accessories sold that have followed since, it's not the case anymore.
We are at a point where the Avengers dominate costumes sales charts, and with each costume change the character gets in the movie, the costumes in fans' wardrobes change too.
Over the last decade, Marvel's characters have given us some truly iconic costumes, and dare I say it, they have become timeless.

The reason behind this timelessness isn't as obscured as it would seem. When you really break it down, it's a combination of a very specific set of factors, the first of which is the costume design.
I don't have to think twice before saying Marvel costumes have the best designs of them all. When your costumes look as attractive as they do on the big screen, it's really justa matter of time before fans bring said costume into their homes.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has moved from science-oriented to magic and cosmic in recent years and their costumes have followed suit.
A Marvel costume's greatest strength is how it's always tone-appropriate and yet believable enough while being comic accurate.
Iron Man's costume would seem like a tricky proposition to faithfully recreate onscreen, but Marvel marries the bright colors with the mechanical design to create a look that translates fantastically to a take-home costume!
The same goes for characters like Thor and Captain America, whose cosmic battle armor and modern combat suit are very faithful to the comics in terms of design and colors, but realistic enough to translate well to a costume.
And hey, if they can get a costume as outre as Doctor Strange's right, complete with the cloak of levitation and all, you know they know what they're doing.

But of course, a cool costume wouldn't amount to too much if the character wearing the said costume was a mopey soulless bore, would it?
The characters are undoubtedly another area where Marvel succeeds.
Sure, from the oldest stalwart Iron Man to the newest recruit Doctor Strange they might all have a bit of an affinity for sharp one-liners, but their overall natures, story arcs and generally likable personalities ensure they are people who have earned the costumes they wear.
And when you can get behind the characters like you do in a Marvel movie, you feel compelled to wear their costume.
Whether it is the teeny-tiny Ant-Man or the snarky Hawkeye, they all have their unique appeal, and it's not hard to why they say what they say:
You don't just wear a Marvel costume, you become the hero at hand.

But just as a great costume does not guarantee timelessness without a great character to back it up, a great costume worn by a great character does not guarantee it either.
Rather, it is the confluence of great characters, great costumes and most importantly, a great story that determines timelessness.
The reason Marvel's costumes and characters enjoy the timelessness they do and did even before the superhero boom is that the stories involving these characters were always consistently great.
Marvel clearly paid attention to this, because in the 9 years and 14 films since the Marvel Cinematic Universe's inception, we are yet to have a bad film! Even when Marvel slips up a little, they make a film that's reasonably entertaining if a little forgettable!
You don't just love a Black Panther costume, the newest Iron Man costume or the recent Captain America costumes because they looked cool in Civil War, or because these were well fleshed out iconic characters come to life, you love them because they took place in a deeply personal and impactful story!
Marvel's movies aren't just excuses to show off their costuming and CGI prowess, they are showcases meant to capture the spirit of comic books in a real world context.
Black Widow fans don't stock up on Black Widow costumes just because it looks great on Scarlett Johansson, they buy them because they loved Scarlett Johansson portray Black Widow as the character she is, in a film that needed even the most underpowered character to risk her life to maintain order in the world against a God and an alien army.
When you've been doing it for as long as Marvel has, you deserve a standing ovation.

When we started getting deep into the reason for Marvel costumes' timelessness, I told you the reasons weren't as obscured as they'd appear, and as we wind up our discussion, wouldn't you agree with me?
As long as Marvel keeps doing what it's doing, fans will keep coming back for more and the number of Marvel costumes you see will only go higher and higher.
Marvel is on the cusp of greatness, just as Star Wars was back in 1983 before Episode V: Return of the Jedi came out, and judging by the anticipation surrounding Episode VIII: The Last Jedi as fans polish off their classic Star Wars costumes, I'd say they did something right, didn't they?
Marvel is on the same platform as they are, and Wonder Costumes is all too eager to make sure Marvel gets where they want, so to satiate fans on the lookout for Marvel costumes, we keep the most enviable stock of Marvel costumes around.
As we look back on Star Wars decades later with fond memories, I believe we will do the same for Marvel, when we're eagerly awaiting Avengers 20 or whatever in our Marvel costumes, knowing we were there when it all kicked off. And we'll smile.